Douk Audio - Nobsound - Little Bear: MC Mini Switcher

General Headphone Discussion Comparisons
1

I recently purchased a four line passive switcher/splitter for A/B comparisons between amps and headphones:

This is a tiny and inexpensive product ($25). I know it will degrade the sound to some degree, but I’m still able to hear room echoes and air from acoustic instruments so it’s not too bad. I don’t intend to use this for critical listening, but to reduce the tedium, wear-and-tear, and inconsistencies of manual line swaps.

Note that the vendor sells many other variations of this product to serve different needs.

I also purchased several very short (1.6 foot / 0.5 meter) 3.5mm to RCA cables to connect it to multiple amps:

For scale and my current usage, here’s a picture of the switcher next to the cell phone sized FiiO Q5 DAC/Amp. The Q5 is feeding a 3.5mm line out into the bottom of the Little Bear, with three 3.5mm output cables on back. Also for scale, I put an XLR-4 adapter in the background.

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The left knob switches between the four output lines, the round black button is a mute toggle, and the right knob is the volume control. The lower right switch is for the volume taper, and it scales for either headphones or speakers.

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2

Beautifully laid out and descriptive impressions. Way to go.

GOteam

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3

Thanks. After a couple days of use:

  • The knobs are metal, with smooth action and a solid feel.
  • It came with four rubber stick on feet. These are necessary because the corner screws can scratch, but the dog bone shape forces the feet to be placed a little back from the corners. The screw posts float over thin air and might still scratch with sloppy handling. It’s stable but I wish it had true corners or flush screws on bottom.
  • The sound quality is very good. I may leave it in place for some everyday use.
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